Densho Digital Archive - Jim Tsugawa Interview (denshovh-tjim

<Begin Segment 17>

JT: Then in 1947... no, my sister graduated in '47 from Beaverton High School. Then I entered Beaverton High School in 1947, and I must have been out, somebody must have had a football out in the field before we went in to register for first year, freshman. And the coach must have saw me slinging the football, because I ended up on the varsity my freshman year. And I didn't play that much, but I did play as a freshman, and I lettered as a freshman, basketball, I mean, football. Then that first year I was there, they introduced baseball, because Beaverton was a real track school, very strong. But they introduced baseball, and then I started, yeah, I played baseball there as a freshman. I started in right field. I didn't know my fanny from a hole in the ground, but they put me out there. Basketball I played junior varsity, and then varsity my sophomore year in basketball. Point guard, five feet three. [Laughs] Lot of fun. It was a great time, high school. I look back at high school and I think, gee, wished every kid could experience high school like I did.

AC: So what position did you play in football?

JT: Football, Alton, I don't know if you would know what they call the "single wing." Single wing was the center tailback, I was the tailback. There was a quarterback and a halfback, or wingback, they called it. So the ball was directly centered to me, and then I either passed or ran. So I was the cog behind the outfits, because I ran and passed, I don't know how I ever passed with these little hands.

AC: But you said you were the wingback?

JT: No, I was the tailback.

AC: Tailback, okay.

JT: So the ball, most of the time, eighty percent of the time, came to me.

AC: From the quarterback to you?

JT: No.

AC: Directly to you?

JT: Directly from the center. It was a fun time. I had a great time playing.

AC: Yeah, so you're football, basketball, and baseball.

JT: Baseball.

AC: Wow, you were, like, all-star athlete.

JT: Well, I don't know about all-star, but I played. And again, in high school there was no animosity, no prejudice, I mean, this is 1945, the war ended, and I'm '47. It was just two years out of, from the war's end. But I felt no animosity or prejudice. And, Alton, I was the only ethnic person. I was the only Japanese American. There were no blacks, no Filipinos, no Vietnamese, no nothing, just me, which was very unusual. Now you see, which is great, just integration of all the races there.

AC: Did that make you feel any different?

JT: No, I was accepted. And, again, of course, and I've thought about it, is being, playing sports, they accepted me probably more on that ability, and accepted me as that type of a person. I was very much accepted into the mainstream.

AC: I want to go back to one thing you had mentioned. You mentioned that your brother Ike was drafted from Minidoka...

JT: Yes.

AC: ...into the army. So was he part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team?

JT: No. No, he was not. I don't know where Ike served. Before I get any information, now that I think about it, you know, but he was honorably discharged.

AC: But you don't remember where he, he never mentioned where he served or what he did?

JT: No, he didn't. I guess I wasn't interested in his military career.